The F-22 could be going to war this year, at least on the fringes. “There’s no reason why you would not, could not or should not use the F-22,” says Gen. John Corley, commander of Air Combat Command. The Raptor was declared combat-ready in December 2007. “If it had been operational when we went into Afghanistan or Iraq, it would have been in wave one, day one, instant one,” he says.
Pratt & Whitney is conducting ballistic tests on composite structures to determine if the material will be used for major parts of the first production geared turbofan (GTF) destined for Mitsubishi’s Regional Jet.
Narita Airport is lobbying for a 50% expansion in its aircraft movements, arguing that the other Tokyo airport, Haneda, will reach its capacity by 2012 even with the opening of a fourth runway in October 2010. Narita proposes to expand to up to 300,000 movements per year without lengthening its runways or operating times.
Alenia Aermacchi hopes to expand its trainer footprint in South America thanks to a memorandum of understanding with Chile’s Enaer signed last week. The MOU involves joint marketing and production of M-346 and M-311 jet trainers throughout the continent, for both training and counterinsurgency/light attack duties. The agreement could address a potential requirement in Chile, which lacks an advanced jet trainer.
Eutelsat and AsiaSat affiliate Speedcast have announced the launch of a new global maritime broadband service. The service is expected to rely on Ku-band satellite capacity owned by Eutelsat and Hong Kong-based AsiaSat.
Australia will seek an open-skies agreement with the European Union, seeking greater competition. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is expected to raise the issue in Brussels next week.
U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Patrick J. O’Reilly has been nominated for promotion to director from deputy director of the Missile Defense Agency and for promotion to lieutenant general.
Patrick S. Cheatham (see photos) and Andre C. Montoya have been appointed principal directors and Theodore J. Muelhaupt associate principal director at The Aerospace Corp. ’s Chantilly, Va., facility. Michael W. Fortanbary and Graham S. Arnold have been named principal directors at the Huntsville, Ala., office. Cheatham will head the Sensors, Signals and Electronics Subdiv. of the Electronics and Sensors Div. He was director of the division’s Sensor Engineering and Exploitation Dept. within the division.
Jim Gallagher (Director, Aircraft Health and Trend Monitoring System Program)
Frank Sligar’s comments regarding the level of technology in today’s aircraft, along with the pilot’s inability to detect when something operated by a computer is not working correctly, are valid when the only information being used is the aircraft Crew Alerting System (CAS).
Pratt & Whitney has established strategic university partnerships with Georgia Tech, Penn State and Virginia Tech, strengthening its relationships with these institutions and their highly ranked engineering programs. Pratt & Whitney will partner with the universities on fundamental research initiatives that support the design and development of propulsion systems used in commercial and military aircraft, and emerging technology and environmental programs.
The U.S. Air Force has awarded a contract to provide add-on armor kits for the C-5 to Qinetiq North America’s Technology Solutions Group. The company already provides armor for USAF C-17s and C-130s.
Senior management at Russia’s United Aircraft Corp. concede that a delay in first delivery of the Sukhoi Superjet 100 is increasingly possible. Two aircraft were due to be handed over in November and December. Alexey Fyodorov, head of United Aircraft Corp., says: “Without a doubt, the delivery schedule looks very tight now. I don’t exclude that [deliveries] could be postponed over a delay in certification tests.”
Japan Airlines was to add its code Mar. 30 to six additional routes served by China Eastern between China and Japan. The routes will give the two carriers joint services to 13 Chinese cities on 36 routes. Of the 318 flights scheduled per week, Japan Airlines will operate about 180 to 10 Chinese airports. The two airlines have had a code-sharing agreement since September 2002 and launched a reciprocal frequent-flier program last month.
The National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) at Wichita (Kan.) State University is conducting research into fluid ingression damage mechanisms in composite sandwich structures widely used in the aerospace industry. NIAR is performing the work under the FAA’s Center of Excellence for Composites and Advanced Materials (Cecam), which validates the research, testing, certification and technology transfer of composites used in aircraft construction. John S.
The U.S. Transportation Dept. has ruled that the township of Tinicum, Pa., may not impose a privilege fee on airlines flying out of Philadelphia International Airport. The fee was created by the township after it failed to reach a deal with the City of Philadelphia on past-due property taxes. Airlines were against the fee, noting that the Anti-Head Tax Act prohibits the imposition of taxes, fees and charges by state and local jurisdictions on airlines and other airport users.
Squabbling over budget cuts in the Mars program apparently led Alan Stern, NASA’s hard-charging associate administrator for science, to resign from the agency Mar. 25. Stern declined comment on his abrupt move, but it came right after Administrator Michael Griffin countermanded an order from Stern’s Science Mission Directorate to trim $4 million from the budget of the long-lived Mars Exploration Rovers (MERs), Spirit and Opportunity. Stern, who retained his post as principal investigator on the New Horizons Pluto-flyby mission when he took the headquarters job on Apr.
Japan Airlines plans to add its code to six more routes operated by China Eastern between China and Japan. The additional code-shares will give the two carriers joint services to 13 Chinese cities on 36 routes.
Delta and American airlines were returning MD-80s to normal operations late last week after the carriers voluntarily grounded them for wiring rechecks—and to make certain the aircraft were in full compliance with an FAA airworthiness directive.
Gulfstream’s gambit to one-up Bombardier’s Global Express at the top of the business jet line will rely heavily on new technology developed by European propulsion, systems and aerostructures suppliers.
Lockheed Martin expects to develop 4,000-5,000 new lines of software code to fix a problem in its Space-Based Infrared System (Sbirs) satellites bound for geosynchronous orbit. Rick Ambrose, vice president of surveillance systems, says the first Sbirs satellite displayed a potential timing problem among its onboard processors. If certain functions don’t synchronize correctly, the timing issue could prohibit use of the safe mode that shuts down all but essential systems until the satellite receives commands from the ground in the event of an on-orbit problem.
The U.K. and France say they intend to forge a “joint industrial strategy for complex weapons,” one of a number of defense initiatives that emerged from an Anglo-French summit on Mar. 27, between British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The aim is to provide renewed impetus to bilateral defense cooperation between the two countries. A communique from the summit also stated the two countries are to “pursue a common approach to in-service support” for the Airbus Military A400M.
NTSB investigators plan to conduct a ballistic trajectory analysis to help them locate a 4 X 5-ft. wing panel that separated from a US Airways Boeing 757 on Mar. 22. The composite panel, from the trailing edge of the upper side of the left wing, broke loose and struck several rear windows, cracking the outer pane of one. The safety board says the inner pane was not damaged, and pressurization of the aircraft was not compromised.
Undeterred by the turmoil surrounding potential industrial partners, Airbus officials are moving forward in defining the A350, with further supplier decisions and important configuration changes due soon. One of the latest design alterations is a shift to a 5,000-psi. hydraulics system. The baseline design used 3,000-psi. hydraulics, but the higher-pressure system allows for lighter and smaller pipes and actuators, improving fuel efficiency.
Turkmenistan Airlines has ordered two Boeing 737-900ERs and one 737-700. Boeing also added two 737 orders to its unidentified-customer list but said one 737 order has been withdrawn. The changes raise Boeing’s net 737 order list for 2008 to 184 aircraft and its total for all airplanes to 286.
